SmartyGirlLeadership Media interviewed Caulder Bradford, Owner/CEO of Diverge Creations LLC, for his take on building a deliberate team with a shared vision while bridging the gap between artistry and commercial success.

Last summer readers received an exclusive interview with TED talker Guy Kawasaki on what makes a brand likeable.

This summer SmartyFellas and SmartyGirls are given business leadership tips from edgy, avant-garde, and likeable Caulder Bradford.

So imbibe your favorite non-alcoholic beverage or Harp’s lager and ponder these thoughtstarters from a young but wise CEO.

C: In the beginning I was collaborating with my friend Edmund, who is an artist and game designer, on small, fairly unconventional web games. He’d have the vision and do all the art and I would handle engineering. With those early projects I think it wasn’t so much the core gameplay that was revolutionary but the unique art and the way we implemented our ideas. Ed moved on to create commercial works such as Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, and I got more into engine and game tech development, and also worked in the mobile and social spaces for awhile, both as a contractor and also as part of several Bay Area startups. I’m now focused on my own projects under the Diverge Creations banner, as well as doing a bit of contracting & consulting for other companies.

How did you build support for you creative game development company?

C:I’m currently the only full-timer. The rest of my awesome team take on other projects 9-5. For some it’s a weekend project, working with me, and that’s totally cool. It’s great to work with talented people in any capacity and see them contribute to a project. So first, I had a clear vision to bridge the gap between art and business. Next, I found like-minded community: talented individuals who also believe being professional is a part of artistic integrity. Lastly, I invited those who were interested and a good fit for the team to join me.

Our team has a shared vision. This doesn’t mean we have the same skill set, and I think we are even somewhat different people in terms of interests, but as a creative force we fit together very well.

How do you communicate with potential funders who don’t understand the technology industry or the gamer artist community?

C: Funders do not have to understand the finer details of graphics engineering or our artistic influences, for example, to participate. Get to know us: what we have created in the past and who we are. We’re self-funded but I would be open to potential investors that trust us enough to stay hands-off from the creative process, and have faith in our ability to deliver a great product.

Can you give an example of sacrifices you’ve made to keep creative integrity?

C: You must decide for yourself what compromises you aren’t willing to make. That may mean declining potential investment offers that would derail the creative vision. As a result this will probably change your development time-frame. It will take longer but you will stay true to yourself and what motivates you.

How do you protect yourself and the indie company brand from burnout?

C: In contrast to some in the indie community who maybe believe it’s necessary to sacrifice a social life to succeed, I’ve found it’s really important for me personally to have at least some semblance of a work-life balance. Of course as the CEO of Diverge, I need to work much more than a 9-5 schedule. But I do take time away from the project to recharge. I do a lot of running, I check out concerts here in SF, work on my car etc. I find this prevents burn-out and keeps me motivated and enthusiastic about my business and my projects.

I make a point to network as much as I can and spend time with other artists & developers. I get inspired by just about anyone who is doing something creative and interesting with their life. I’m creatively influenced by all kinds of different sources, from music to film, literature, history, basically whatever. The idea of the reclusive developer, cloistering himself/herself in solitary confinement and subsisting on ramen isn’t exactly me. As a leader of a creative business you need to decide for yourself what kind of sacrifices are needed, and what you’re willing to do to meet your goals. Is creative control something you feel comfortable bargaining? How about the administrative control of your company? What would you give up for low overhead costs? Does the talent you want to attract require catered lunches? You just need to decide what kind of work you really want to do, and what kind of company you want to run, and then you need to stick to your guns.

What is a fun fact about you?

C: I have a pretty eclectic taste in music I suppose. Heavy metal is probably my main thing, but I like a lot of classical music too. I am especially fond of Wagner, Beethoven and Mozart. Amadeus (1984) is one of my favorite films, although I don’t think it’s too historically accurate…

Follow @caulderbradford for rants and musings, his bizarre Spotify playlist and updates on Diverge Creations’ projects.

Some Sundays I work the door as security for operations at an edutainment place for kids.First, I’ll share what I learned. Then, I’ll explain who taught it to me.

3 LifeHacks from a Second-grader’s Time-out

1. Stay cool. Don’t get down on yourself if you are punished for something. It may be the timing not something wrong with you.

2. Don’t sweat it when some things are out of your control. Be patient. Maybe you’ll get more housemates than you’d prefer. Maybe someone will choose to take and keep something you like that is yours. Maybe for a morning you’ll be required not to laugh at something that is die-hard funny.

3. Be curious how people perceive you. But be yourself even when it costs. Nerd-ing. Coding. Drawing. Playing. Laughing.

I received wisdom from a second-grader, on a time-out, last Sunday. We’ll call the second-grader Harry. We were both sitting on the carpet, outside the double-doors of a live children’s edutainment production that morning.

Harry, to me, looked like a respectful but too-smart-to-be 100% compliant type of student. Come on, now. SmartyFellas and SmartyGirls,you know what it feels like to sit on a butt-numbingly cold cement curb during recess because yard duty told you so. Right? You remember scratching at a waffle imprint on the back of your legs, in spring, when you were made to sit in the school office awaiting your appointment with the school principal in a sagging, rust-hued, cheap upholstered arm chair. Today’s Smarties are yesterday’s honor roll misfits. Right?My co-bouncer, David, said to Harry, “Tough morning, man?” I slid down the wall of chaperone scanner monitors to sit on the floor facing Harry. My medical slippered foot stuck out and I tried to be nonchalant about it.

“What happened?” Harry asked in a whisper pointing at my black velcro boot. “Bike accident. I’ll get better. No biggie.” I replied. “Do you play soccer?” I asked to turn the attention away from how a 35-year-old woman breaks her toe while riding a Schwinn.

“I have brothers, six of them. They play.” offered Harry.

“Cool” I said. I observed. Harry hovered a beige door stopper wedge a few millimeters from the ground. It was in the same way I would push wedge wood blocks on vinyl flooring pretending the blocks were Hot Wheels when I was a kid.

Harry covered his mouth and turned his face to the wall so the co-bouncer could see less of his face. Harry was laughing.

Harry was on a time-out for laughing inside the double-doored theater.

So I said, “It’s hard not to laugh sometimes. Have you ever tried so hard, not to laugh, that you make tears?”

Harry’s silent laughing was shaking his shoulders and his eyes were squeezed shut from self-control. But he heard me.

“I know that farting is no big deal. Everyone does it but what’s just not fair is the sound. The sound is the worst. I try hard not to laugh.” said Harry.

So Harry was removed from the kid audience room because of two things: he acknowledged that a fart occurred and secondly, it made him laugh.

“The sound.” repeated Harry and I believe he was asking me to reply.

It’s understandable. In second grade, you know that grown-ups live in a weirder world of make-believe where farts are not owned. The fart-maker expects others to pretend he/she did not just pass gass in public. Harry, simply is too smart. I also knew this in second grade and as an adult I’ve chosen another reply. I say, “It happens” if it is someone farts a hot one on my long jacket while swaying from the rungs on a crowded BART. If it is me, I own it. I say, “Sorry, people. That was me” and I hang my head for the appropriate number of seconds.

However, the operations people for the edutainment were concerned about class control so Harry was removed and told that his parents would be picking him up soon.

I learned more about Harry. I mirrored his movements. He shifted so I shifted on the carpet like he did. The cardboard purple, green and orange cartoon lionhead of the edutainment program seemed to look sympathetic on the navy blue wall above us.Understand, when you want to make yourself less conspicuous you don’t bend your knees. Bending knees can make you appear bigger like a small hill rather than a part of the orange-and-blue square pattern on commercial grade carpet.

“I have a DS” said Harry politely making conversation with me, the sympathetic bouncer.

“You do? Cool, tell me more about it.”

“I got a DS I really wanted but I don’t have it right now. Someone at school took it. I know who it is but she won’t give it back. A friend saw her take it.”

“I’m sorry. That stinks when you know who has it but you gotta wait for whenever.”

“Yeah,”said Harry and showed his ability to shrug it off. He resumed. “I like my DS. My favorite game to play on it is Black Ops. But I can’t play it all the time. It’s hard but also my brothers hide Black Ops from me.”

Since I worked for client Ubisoft last fall, I confessed, “I’m not very good. Can you give me some pointers?”

I wasn’t being patronizing. I was being earnest. I suck at all first-person shooter games. The video game giant hired me to be their Promotions Coordinator not one of their FragDolls.

“It’s not the shooting. It’s the walking. I walk into corners and I can’t turn around. I’m usually looking at the sky when I am murdered.”

Harry looked thoughtful and you could see him picturing the menu options on his invisible game controller. “I know there is a setting so you can make it move from medium-hard to easy. I just can’t remember what it looks like but it’s there.”

He consoled: “I think it’s hard too. The bad guys get me.”

“Do you have brother? I have six brothers and the new baby will arrive Christmas.” sighed Harry.

“I got two brothers” I said and raised two of my fingers and scrunched my nose. “Family is good but family can also be hard sometimes.”

“Yeah” said Harry and brightened. “You know what else I like? But can I know something first?”

“Sure.”

“Are programming guys nerds?”

“Do you mean people who create the video games like engineers? Coders?” I asked for clarification.

“Well, are they scientists? Are they researchers? Is nerd a good thing?”

I tried to guess what Harry really wanted to know. You can say that programming is a kind of science. Coding may be nerding. Would hearing that such talents were often called nerds be a bad thing?

Harry shrugged. I don’t think I clarified anything for what he wanted to know. As a bouncer for edutainment I didn’t want to bully or forcibly drag him into STEM. I was warming up my Nerd, it gets better speech that it looks like was unneccserrily.

“I like to draw,” said Harry.

“Oh my gosh, cool! Can you tell me more?”

“I love to draw. I think of good buys and bad guys and scenes…”

Then enforcement came and dismissed Harry to return to the show after extracting a promise of self-control (i.e. laughter suppression).

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